BLP advises Eclectic Bar Group plc on acquisition

BLP has advised Eclectic Bar Group plc (Eclectic) on its acquisition of all the shares in The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier Company from the Noble Group. Eclectic has been renamed The Brighton Pier Group plc.

The acquisition is a reverse takeover under the AIM Rules, so was conditional upon obtaining shareholder consent and the readmission of the Company’s shares to AIM.

Funding for the acquisition and additional working capital will be a mix of equity (a conditional placing of shares carried out by way of an accelerated book-build) and debt provided by Barclays. Panmure Gordon and Arden Partners are brokers to the placing.

The transaction completed on 28 April 2016.

Corporate Finance Partner Murdoch Currie commented: “We were pleased to work with Eclectic on another deal, particularly one so exciting for the group as it marks a new stage of development for its portfolio.”

The BLP team was led by Murdoch Currie and Daisy Reeves (Banking), with a multi-disciplinary team including Ray Fang, Sara Magrath, Xian Wei Yeo and Anais Shenton in Corporate Finance; Kyle Johnson, Daniel Gilberthorpe and David Liao in Banking; James Banks and Robert Gowing in Real Estate; James Hamon in Tax; Mark Kaye in Employment; Mimi Curren in Commercial; and Jeremy Bark in Regulatory.